Foreign Soil

by

Maxine Beneba Clarke

Willemina Character Analysis

In “Hope,” Willemina is an elderly seamstress who owns a sewing shop in Kingston. The shop fell into her hands when her former lover, a wealthy, married Haitian man, bought her it in order to keep her on the island (and separate from his other, more important life in Haiti). Willemina knows firsthand the intoxicating effects of love, so when rumors spread that Millie, whom Willemina has taken on as an apprentice, is romantically involved with a cane cutter named Winston, she worries about Millie’s future. Her worries prove warranted when Millie becomes pregnant with Winston’s child. But rather than throw Millie out, Willemina keeps her on as an apprentice, allowing her to work throughout her pregnancy and after she gives birth to her child, Eddison William. Still, in her efforts to help Millie, Willemina ends up overstepping, as when she discreetly intercepts and withholds the monthly letters (and, unbeknownst to Willemina, money) that Winston sends Millie when he leaves Kingston to return to his rural home region. Willemina’s meddling is another instance of the older generation misunderstanding the younger generation and (in this case, erroneously) doubting their ability to make decisions about their future.

Willemina Quotes in Foreign Soil

The Foreign Soil quotes below are all either spoken by Willemina or refer to Willemina. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Place Theme Icon
).
Hope Quotes

Mr. Lucas, crooning to his daughter’s future-crop with a deep, velvety calypso as he tended the plot after the rains, noticed the disease when, starting at the outer edges, the jade-green leaves started to yellow. Within two weeks the tiny Panama freckles expanded to dark pockmarks, and the man knew his daughter’s dreams were in trouble.

Related Characters: Millie Lucas, Willemina, Mr. Lucas
Related Symbols: Bananas
Page Number: 35-36
Explanation and Analysis:

Millie had heard stories about the root of Aunt Willemina’s wealth. About the wealthy Haitian man with a wife and children who had set her up on the strip with her own sewing shop in her own name when she had been feisty and beautiful. She took the older woman’s speech for half a lifetime of regret.

Related Characters: Millie Lucas, Willemina, Winston Gray
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

As Willemina’s health deteriorated, it became clear that the young girl was being groomed to take over the sewing shop. Staffing the shop by day and working on alterations in the early evenings, baby Eddison slung tightly around her chest, Millie never had time to stop and think about whether the shop was the good fortune she had wanted for herself. At least, not until the day Winston turned up again.

Related Characters: Millie Lucas, Willemina, Winston Gray, Eddison William
Page Number: 50-51
Explanation and Analysis:
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Willemina Quotes in Foreign Soil

The Foreign Soil quotes below are all either spoken by Willemina or refer to Willemina. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Place Theme Icon
).
Hope Quotes

Mr. Lucas, crooning to his daughter’s future-crop with a deep, velvety calypso as he tended the plot after the rains, noticed the disease when, starting at the outer edges, the jade-green leaves started to yellow. Within two weeks the tiny Panama freckles expanded to dark pockmarks, and the man knew his daughter’s dreams were in trouble.

Related Characters: Millie Lucas, Willemina, Mr. Lucas
Related Symbols: Bananas
Page Number: 35-36
Explanation and Analysis:

Millie had heard stories about the root of Aunt Willemina’s wealth. About the wealthy Haitian man with a wife and children who had set her up on the strip with her own sewing shop in her own name when she had been feisty and beautiful. She took the older woman’s speech for half a lifetime of regret.

Related Characters: Millie Lucas, Willemina, Winston Gray
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

As Willemina’s health deteriorated, it became clear that the young girl was being groomed to take over the sewing shop. Staffing the shop by day and working on alterations in the early evenings, baby Eddison slung tightly around her chest, Millie never had time to stop and think about whether the shop was the good fortune she had wanted for herself. At least, not until the day Winston turned up again.

Related Characters: Millie Lucas, Willemina, Winston Gray, Eddison William
Page Number: 50-51
Explanation and Analysis: